I wrote about setting Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express up and configuring it to index a web site, the search interface that I demonstrated was a standard SharePoint site based on the Search Centre Template. I thought it would be nice to show how easy it is to build your own search interface.
I think the big appeal about Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express is that it can be used without the full overhead of SharePoint. So with that in mind and the fact that I’m unhealthily in love with the MVC framework, I’ve put together a simple ASP.NET MVC sample that works with the search server:
The screen cast shows the sample application as well as an overview of the code:
The thing that is really appealing is that by using the ASP.NET MVC framework, you have complete control over the generated HTML, there is no nasty webpart hidden fields or the hideous viewstate.
I hope you come away with the idea that Search Server would be perfect for indexing your website or file shares etc, but that you ultimately have the power to present those results how you see fit.
You can download the source code to my sample application here. It makes use of the MVCContrib library for the pagination support and preview 5 of the MVC framework.
A list of all the default columns that are returned by the search web service can be found here:
If these don’t provide what you need then you can use the other enterprise search schema’s.